


Headcanon: Q's promotion to Quartermaster

by Anyawen



Category: James Bond (Craig movies)
Genre: 007 Fest 2020, Don't copy to another site, Events from Skyfall, Explosions, Gen, Promotions, Retirement, team00
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-12
Updated: 2020-07-12
Packaged: 2021-03-05 03:20:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 351
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25217650
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anyawen/pseuds/Anyawen
Summary: He was M's first choice, but he didn't get the job. Not at first.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 38





	Headcanon: Q's promotion to Quartermaster

Q was not the first pick to replace Boothroyd. Or, well. He was M's first pick, but there were politics at work. Others were exerting pressure to put their choice into a position of power within MI6 in order to undercut M’s authority. She knew who they wanted, and why, and let them have their way.

Boothroyd had retired 5 months before the explosion at Vauxhall, shortly after Bond was shot off the train in Istanbul. He’d moved to the south of France and was happily keeping chickens and painting.

The new Q(1) lasted until the first agent died on their watch while they were listening in on comms. The intel was good, the agent did as directed, and was killed anyway. Q(1) resigned. 

Q(2) took the job until the first budgetary meeting, then asked to be bumped back down to being a minion.

Q(3) was fired for sexual harassment after using their new position to try to extort sex from a minion in exchange for approving their proposed weapons tech project. 

Q(4) was killed in the explosion.

Q-branch was starting to talk about the position of quartermaster in terms of being cursed, likening it to the defense against the dark arts position. They shy away when approached about filling the vacancy, saying they refuse to put their names into the Goblet of Fire.

Q(5) has mad skills - hacker, inventor, genius, teamwork/leadership, dry, sarcastic wit, good with politics and budgets ... but he's young. What’s worse, he’s M’s favored candidate, and the politicians would take any other qualified person before him, but there are none.

After the Silva incident Q-branch remains convinced that the position is cursed and expects Q(5) to be taken out back and shot after M's death. Bond insists to Mallory and Tanner that Q(5) needs to stay. Mistakes were made, yes, but they do not all lay at Q(5)'s feet, and lessons have been learned from those that were. What's more, Bond says he won't work with anyone else. They keep Q(5). 

They never regret it.


End file.
